


Red Wine and Memories

by angelus2hot



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Het, Implied Relationships, Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-26
Updated: 2010-03-26
Packaged: 2017-10-20 17:03:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/215029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelus2hot/pseuds/angelus2hot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While cleaning, Willow finds something that reminds her of Oz.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red Wine and Memories

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Red Wine and Memories  
> Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer  
> Pairing/Characters: Willow, Oz  
> Word Count: 1,411  
> Rating: PG  
> Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon and Co. I'm just playing in his sandbox.  
> Prompt: Written for the Willow round at genfic minis for snogged who wanted Oz, grilled cheese and red wine.

Willow stood in shocked silence at the mess that surrounded her. The room was filled with a lot of boxes, at least an inch of dust coated everything in sight and if she wasn’t mistaken that was a huge spider web hanging in the far corner. Giles was right, the storeroom was in desperate need of a serious cleaning. Exactly how she came to agree to be the one that cleaned the storeroom she wasn’t sure. But she was almost positive if she’d known how big a mess the room was really in, she would have rethought helping out.

With a long sigh of resignation, Willow laid her jacket on the box nearest the door, rolled up her sleeves and set to work.

An hour and a half later and she felt as if she was finally making progress. She had already cleared away the dust covering most of the shelves and all of the merchandise. The boxes on one side of the room were already properly labeled and correctly stacked in alphabetical order. She’d removed all of the returned boxes of chicken feet and had even found one of the unopened packages that had been missing for months.

Willow wiped her brow with the back of her hand, leaving behind a dirt smudge across her forehead. She grabbed for the next box lying half-hidden on the bottom shelf and yelped when her fingers struck against something hard. Gingerly, she moved the box out of her way and leaned down to take a peek at the cause of her pain.

 _What the...? A bottle of wine?_ She wondered how it came to be hidden on the shelf in the first place after all she hadn’t even known that Giles drank wine. She’d only ever seen him drink tea and occasionally scotch. Although once she’d been told he had drank coffee because he wished to remain tense. Which hadn’t made a lot of sense to her but still...

Willow carefully, just in case she struck her fingers on something else, removed the glass bottle from its hiding place. Gently she wiped away the dust that coated the bottle and read the name. _Oh my goddess!_ In her hands was a bottle of _Cabernet Sauvignon!_ She hadn't seen any since...She always avoided the wine isle at the grocery store.... she couldn't bear to see...not after... Her eyes glazed over with shock as a forgotten memory assailed her.

 

 

It was a day like any other. She’d gone to school, had a long conversation with Buffy about the literature assignment, tried to help Xander with his math and stared at Oz when he wasn’t looking. And then out of nowhere it had happened. She and Oz started talking. They’d even made plans for him to come over to her house. Which was a pretty big step for her. Not once in her whole life had she ever had a boy that she liked come over to her house. Xander Harris didn’t count of course, simply because he hadn’t realized that she liked him. Oz was different. He seemed to know things without having to be told. She guessed he was just smart that way. And she really liked a smart guy...at least if he happened to be Oz.

It had seemed to take forever but finally school was over and it was time to meet Oz. After telling Buffy she would call her later, she’d rushed home to get changed. She was so nervous she even cleaned the living room twice. The candles on the mantle had been lit and blown out three times before she’d decided that it could be construed as romantic and left them unlit. She didn’t want Oz to feel rushed into anything.

Finally her nervousness got the better of her and she decided to do the only thing, besides homework, that calmed her down. She was in the kitchen when she’d heard the front door open. “Oz?”

 

The sound of butter sizzling lead him into the kitchen, where he found Willow standing in front of the stove coating a pan with melted butter.

"Hey."

Willow turned around quickly, holding the spatula out in front of her.

Oz took a quick step back. "Hey, it's just me. But I have to ask, you really weren't expecting to hold off a demon with a spatula, were you?

Willow glanced down at the utensil in her hand, before giving Oz a sheepish look. "It's made of wood."

Clearly the only demon she'd thought of was a vampire. Oz couldn't stop the grin from spreading across his face. _Damn, she was adorable!_ He could just picture her holding Spike at bay with only a spatula. "So it is."

For just a moment the sheer force of his smile struck her. When he smiled it was if the sun had appeared after a long day of thunderstorms. Praying that she didn’t make a fool of herself, Willow swallowed softly, quickly turned back around and began cutting long slices of cheddar cheese. “Do you want?”

The smile faded from his face as a whole different meaning to her words washed over him. His body tightened unexpectedly at the thrill of the thought. If only that was what she had meant by the word want. He hoped maybe someday, someday soon that he and Willow would....

“Oz?”

He shook his head as he tried desperately to rid himself of unneeded sexual thoughts. _What kind of guy was he?_ They hadn’t even kissed yet and he was already thinking about taking things to the next level. “Huh?”

“Would you like to have a grilled cheese sandwich with me?”

If he couldn’t have what he really wanted... “Sure.”

Willow flashed him a quick smile. “Okay, two grilled cheese sandwiches coming right up.” She placed the thick slices of cheese between the bread and began frying them in the pan.

“Can I help?” He offered if for no other reason than to keep his mind off the things he would rather be doing with Willow.

“Why don’t you pour us something to drink?”

With only a soft smile as an answer, Oz left the room; only to return in moments with a bottle.

“What ya got there?”

He answered her question with his best imitation of a French accent, _“Cabernet Sauvignon.”_

“Umm... wine?” Willow wasn’t really much of a drinker but for Oz she’d be willing to try anything once.

He uncorked the bottle of red wine and set it on the counter beside the empty glass. “I thought it’d go with the cheese.” Oz bit his bottom lip to keep from smiling again. What the hell was wrong with him? Usually he was more stoic than this. But there was just something about Willow that made it hard for him not to smile.

The rest of the day had gone by quickly. He’d poured them a glass of wine to share and didn’t even laugh when she had wrinkled up her nose at her first sip of the sweet, red wine. They’d even had a long conversation about the different kinds of wine and the types of food that they go with.

By the time the second glass was poured they were both feeling a lot more relaxed in each other’s company. Suddenly without warning Oz’s lips were near hers and her heart thudded loudly in her chest. _Bless every goddess known to womankind, they were about to kiss!_ Finally, she would have her own smoochies without having to live vicariously through Buffy. Closer and closer, almost.....

 

 

At the incessant ringing of the phone, Willow was jerked out of her thoughts. She stood quickly and raced out of the room. Breathing hard, she answered the phone. “The Magic Box.”

“I’m sorry you have the wrong number.” Willow hung up the phone without another word and went back to the storeroom muttering, _”Damn telemarketers!”_

 

Once again Willow kneeled down beside the shelves and reached for the bottle of red wine. Silently, almost lovingly she set the bottle back onto the shelf where she'd found it. Resolutely, without once looking back at the shelf where the bottle of red wine was hidden once more, she returned to the task at hand.

An hour later she was completely finished with the storeroom. Willow smiled at the work she’d accomplished. No one would ever have guessed at the kind of mess it was in before or the memory that it had helped return.


End file.
